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India has unveiled the world's cheapest computer this week in an effort to bridge the digital divide between rich and poor. The laptop will sell for $20 as part of an ambitious e-learning program known as "National Mission for Education." The program will attempt to link 18,000 colleges and 400 universities across the country.

Some news sources are connecting this ultra-cheap technology with last year's Tata Nano, the world's cheapest car which sells for $2,000.

The computer is known as the Sakshat, which translates as "before your eyes."

The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) initiative launched by Nicholas Negroponte, the computer scientist and former director of MIT’s Media Lab, was not well received in India. A similar project called Classmate was started by Intel.  Another commercial product, the EeePC (made by Taiwan’s Asustek) was the first ultra-cheap, scaled-down laptop which is commonly referred to as netbook. The EeePC lacks a hard drive and sells for $200-$400.

The Sakshat laptop is aimed at boosting e-learning. It has 2Gb Ram capacity and wireless connectivity. No information is available about the processor, the type of LCD screen, or screen size. The operating system is expected to be a stripped-down Linux based OS.

The project already has its detractors who say a $20 laptop would not be commercially sustainable, and point out that the Indian project still does not have a commercial partner. Still, the units are scheduled to be commercially available in six months at $10 a unit.

An agreement has been entered upon by the Indian ministry with four publishers (Macmillan, Tata McGraw Hill, Prentice-Hall and Vikas Publishing) to upload their textbooks on Sakshat with a small percentage being accessed for free.

India is facing the prospect of providing computer skills to a population of more than 550 million under the age of 25. As if 18,00 Indian colleges wasn't already a shocking statistic to Americans, it is expected that an additional 1,500 universities will need to open by 2014. Some UK and US institutions are hoping to partner with Indian higher education in these distance efforts.